Yasumasa Morimura appointed as Artistic Director

The Organizing Committee for Yokohama in Japan announced the appointment of artist Yasumasa Morimura as artistic director of Yokohama Triennale 2014, which will be its fifth edition, to open in early August 2014.

Yasumasa Morimura is a respected and well-established Japanese contemporary artist who first attracted international attention in 1988, when he showed at the Aperto section of the 43rd Venice Biennale.

Morimura was born in 1951 and graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts. He made his debut in 1985 with self-portrait works based on his personal interpretation of Vincent Van Gogh. He has since produced a number of self-portraits in forms of staged photographs and video works that identify with art-historical images, famous film actresses, and iconic figures from the 20th century.

He took part in the seminal group show Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky (Yokohama Museum of Art; Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1994–95), which is the first historical survey of postwar Japanese avant-garde art.

On his appointment as artistic director, Morimura states that he finds his convictions in the “conscience of art.” While acknowledging that “the journey is likely to be quite risky with me as the captain,” because he has no previous experience directing an international exhibition, he also sees this as an advantage, because he “can recapture the fading spirit of adventure” and “lead to some worthwhile proposals,” among the mushrooming number of biennales and triennales.

The Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale, having witnessed the dramatic change in the Japanese consciousness since experiencing the consequences of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, states the reason for appointing Morimura as follows: “…an effort has been made to access the flexible concepts and views of the artists, whose attitudes and ideas have the potential to help us reexamine our way of living and thinking.” Yokohama Triennale 2014 will be held “to pursue new values that are essential to the current era through the medium of art” with the world view of an artist.

Morirmura has held numerous solo exhibitions in Japanese public museums including the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; and Yokohama Museum of Art. His most recent touring solo exhibition includes A Requiem: Art on Top of the Battlefield (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and others, 2010–11) and Produced by Morimura Yasumasa MORIENNALE (Takamatsu City Museum of Art and others, 2010–12). Major overseas museum shows of his work have been organized in the United States, France, Spain, Australia, Thailand, and India.

His works are collected in major national and public institutions in Japan and also overseas, including Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; and Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.

He is a well-established public figure, as an author to numerous publications and a regular contributor to popular magazines and national newspapers. He is also a recipient of one of Japan’s most prestigious award in the field of art and science, the Order of Purple Ribbon, Shiju Hōshō (2011).

About the Yokohama TriennaleThe Yokohama Triennale has been held four times since its inaugural edition in 2001, which marked the beginning of the millennium. The event has been staged in different locations in the portside area that have been developed through the City of Yokohama’s Creative City projects.

Yokohama Triennale 2014 will be held from early August to early November in 2014 at Yokohama Museum of Art and Shinko Pier Exhibition Hall as primary venues.

The organizer is the Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale, with members consisting of the City of Yokohama, Yokohama Arts Foundation, Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), and the Asahi Shimbun.

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